After 1-Year-Old Is Killed, Father Is Silent About Suspects

Friends and neighbors on Monday built a memorial for Antiq Hennis, who was shot Sunday night in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times

By J. DAVID GOODMAN and JULIE TURKEWITZ

September 2, 2013

It is a regular challenge faced by homicide detectives in New York City’s most violent precincts: getting witnesses and even victims to give useful information about shooting suspects.

Never was that more starkly clear than on Monday, as the police in Brooklyn tried to figure out who shot and killed a 1-year-old boy, Antiq Hennis, in his stroller the night before. The police said that Antiq’s father, Anthony Hennis, who was pushing the stroller, was most likely the intended target of the bullets and that they believed he may know who fired them. But if that is so, Mr. Hennis is so far not helping to catch the killer of his son.

Mr. Hennis, a 22-year-old with a history of drug arrests, including for selling heroin, would not answer questions from a reporter on Monday. A rail-thin man whose angular shoulders protruded from a white undershirt, he stood amid friends on the porch of his home on Bristol Street in Brownsville, near the shooting scene. “My son is gone,” he said softly to himself. “There’s pictures of him everywhere, but my son is gone.”

News of Antiq’s death shuddered through Brownsville, where despite a decrease in shootings so far this year, local gang disputes still lead to gunfire.

It drew head-shaking condemnation from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and candidates seeking to replace him as they gathered for the West Indian American Day Parade nearby. “Another child dead senselessly,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters before the parade’s start.

On Monday afternoon, black-and-white photos of Antiq (pronounced an-TEEK) plastered a few brick walls. Women sat hunched in chairs on front stoops around the neighborhood, faces between their hands.

Inside the home of the boy’s mother, Cherisse Miller, 20, wailing and screams could be heard. She briefly stepped outside to thank those gathered there for their support.

Antiq Hennis

William C. Thompson Jr., a Democratic candidate for mayor, visited Ms. Miller on Monday morning. Speaking to reporters beforehand, he decried the “senseless death of our children,” and said that even with a citywide murder rate at record lows, “neighborhoods like Brownsville still have to deal with too high a level of violence.”

The shooting happened around 7:15 p.m. on Sunday at Livonia Avenue and Bristol Street as Mr. Hennis walked with Antiq from Ms. Miller’s home to visit the boy’s great-grandmother a few blocks away.

A gunman, whom the police have yet to identify, fired four bullets from a .45-caliber gun in the direction of the father and son. Two of the rounds struck the stroller and one hit Antiq in the left side of his head, killing him, the police said.

The great-grandmother, Lenore Steele, 72, said she had been sitting outside with relatives nearby when she heard the shots. She then saw Mr. Hennis running toward her, pushing the stroller. He called to her, saying that his baby had been shot, she recalled on Monday.

The police on Monday were investigating the possibility that the shooting had been retribution for an earlier dispute, possibly involving Mr. Hennis or one of his associates. “We’re still trying to determine his contacts,” Mr. Kelly said.

According to court records, Mr. Hennis pleaded guilty last year to selling heroin. Currently on probation, he was arrested in June for a misdemeanor assault stemming from a domestic dispute. It was not immediately clear whether the dispute had been with Antiq’s mother or another woman.

Tony Herbert, 49, a community advocate who has been in regular contact with Antiq’s relatives, said that the shooting was “gang related” and that “the father is no innocent player.” He said some in the community had identified the gunman and were trying to persuade him to turn himself in. But the police said they had no suspects.

As investigators worked round-the-clock shifts to solve the killing, officers in the 73rd Precinct, which covers Brownsville, were bracing for the possibility that someone might retaliate for the shooting, the police said.